Abydos can be visited as a day trip from Luxor, and is almost always combined with a visit to Dendera, a temple from the Ptolemaic era. As these two temples are arguably Egypt’s very finest, this day trip is absolutely essential for all visitors to Luxor.
Sadly, the journey is much more expensive and complicated than most people would imagine. Despite the popularity of the temples, there are no organized group day trips from Luxor. That means you’ll have to arrange a private driver to take you.
I was staying on the west bank of Luxor, and I arranged the trip through a company called Classic Tour Services which has an office there. Everything went smoothly and I’d recommend them to anyone staying on the west bank.
I paid a little over $100 USD, which was a lot more than I was expecting to pay before arriving in Luxor. This was just for a driver and no guide (which is how I prefer it, as I had a great guide book with me).
Many of the prices mentioned on Tripadvisor, even from a couple years ago, are no longer relevant. To compare prices, I asked at a few other tourism offices and at my hotel. And I also chatted with some private drivers by the river. But nobody was quoting me under $100 for both temples.
Also, be careful of cheap tours on Viator. I originally booked a trip for $70 and thought I was getting a great deal. That is until they cancelled on me just two days before with no explanation!
The reason the day trip is so expensive is partly due to the security situation. Part of the money you pay covers the police escort required to visit the area as a foreigner. I’m not quite sure what the deal is, but there is a very heavy security presence around both temples and especially at Abydos. Apparently, it’s been this way for years.
Before the trip, you’ll need to provide your passport information to the driver or tour company a couple days in advance. They’re then supposed to pass this info onto the police.
During the journey, I wasn’t asked by any officers to show my ID, though they did repeatedly ask my driver where I was from. He also got repeated calls throughout the day to confirm our location. Supposedly, they’re worried about a possible abduction or anything that would be bad PR for Egypt’s tourism industry.
After my visit to the temple, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pyramid of Ahmose (the last ever built in Egypt) which is supposed to be less than a 10-minute drive down the road from the Temple of Seti I. Sadly, the officers wouldn’t even give us permission to drive that way, and we were forced to drive directly back to the highway the same way we came.
I’ve read on some blogs and also sites like Wikitravel that taking the train is a viable option. However, after looking more into it and reading various peoples’ comments on the Tripadvisor Egypt forums, this seems like a bad idea.
Train travel is fine for long distances (like Cairo to Luxor), but is highly unreliable for day trips. There are often only a couple trains a day and they’re commonly late. On top of this, the whole security situation makes the matter much more complicated.
Some web sites make it seem like it’s no big deal to take the train and then hire a local taxi. But after seeing the incredibly heavy security presence at Abydos, I think it’s best to play it safe and just hire a reputable driver from Luxor.
It’s likely that somebody just happened to get lucky one time and are now spreading the info online as if anyone can copy what they did. But experienced visitors to Egypt seem to unanimously advise against the train for Dendera and Abydos.